I’ve been meaning to try the bacon cheeseburger at Buchanans Chop House for ages. Chew Steel and I had a stressful afternoon, so we decided to treat ourselves to some premium burgers. For this post, let’s listen to Okie From Muskogee.
I’ve been to Buchanans a few times. Chew Steel’s colleague is a regular at this chophouse, and she hosts all her events here. The restaurant is old-school Calgary: white tablecloths, wooden chairs, and a huge wall of whisky for the oil and energy industry patrons.
Chew Steel ordered a Johnny Buchanans beer ($7.75) while I picked a glass of Mucchietto Primitivo Zin ($17). The wine list is full of jokes. One of the milder ones describes a Sauvignon Blanc as “That wild ex. Vigour, bright and sassy with serious melons.” I’ll leave the rest to your imagination. I got the sense that anyone who complained would be called a snowflake and given the boot.
John Mah from Get in Mah’s Belly has been praising the happy hour burger special for months. Every day from 3-6 p.m., Buchanans offers its $27 Bacon Cheeseburger for $16 with the purchase of any drink or other food item.
Buchanans grinds its beef in-house from whole cuts and cooks each burger to order. I asked our server how John Mah likes his burger cooked. She looked at me blankly. Clearly, she had never heard of John Mah. John has 2,000 followers on Facebook. She is not one of them. We ordered ours medium.
The toppings were stacked on the bun. The red onion was cut into thin, even rings, raw and sharp. The pickle, one long slender plank, lay smooth and flat across the bun. A slice of tomato and whole-leaf lettuce completed the burger. Two large, super-crisp pieces of bacon lay crisscrossed on top, cooked right to the edge of burnt. It shattered when I bit into it, with brittle, crackly edges.
The burger stood tall. I’d guess the patty was over two inches thick. The beef was juicy but not greasy. The patty itself was dense and firm, warm pink in the middle. The burger didn’t lean on ketchup, mustard or mayo for flavour, which I appreciated. With beef this good, the clean taste of meat should be the focus.
The fries were a dark golden brown. Hot and crunchy outside, soft as mashed potatoes inside. The orange-coloured aioli tasted a bit like tangy BBQ sauce. I enjoyed dipping each fry into the creamy sauce.
The portion of fries was so generous that I was stuffed and left more than half my burger. Two drinks and two premium burgers came to $60. That’s about what we paid two weeks ago at Flat Boy Burgers at Sea Change’s Skelly Club. Both were good meals, but very different burgers: a thin smash burger there, and a thick, beef-forward patty here.
Is it one of the best burgers I’ve had in Calgary? Yes, but it’s a steakhouse ground sirloin, cooked to order, so set your expectations accordingly if you’re used to the saucy, smash-type burgers popular in the city. Hitting the Sauce gives Buchanans Chop House cheeseburger two phat thumbs up.
For more spots like these, visit my Cheap Eats Calgary (Under $30) guide.
